05.Broader Changes

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Explain it with Respect to broader social, economic or educational changes, that is, the context of the change.
Social

  • Internet and the WWW have matured as a communications, productivity and social networking platform in its own right with no precedent in history. Jim Bosco (2006) states that ‘today we are in a period where verbal and written communication operate electronically, globally and more personally than ever’. The use of mobile communication has increased exponentially in the last decade. Mobile phones are evidence of the convergence of digital technology and that they are expected to make a significant impact on education and learning, especially through the use of games.
  • Social networking or Web 2.0 sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter have reached wide acceptance and high user access.
  • The implication is that Ministers will begin to examine learning and teaching environments that transform learning to achieve improved outcomes, and social and economic participation. This may give rise to research into areas of educational use of ICT such as pedagogy, social networking, identity and learning portfolios (eportfolios), student management and assessment.
  • The way learners interact with each other has changed. A major question in education is how to maximise the uses of ICT in education taking into account that ICT provides a digital window to global access of information and to the capacity to interact in new ways in the creation of knowledge.

Economic

  • With the assumption that technological skills are essential for economic participation digital technologies are now advanced as ‘a core policy requirement’ in the provision of schooling in Australia (Moyle, 2008, p. 1). This is not only changing schools, universities, teaching and learning, infrastructure, policy and administration (Moyle, 2005/2006); the substantial change being ushered in by the introduction of the DER is ‘reauthoring’ the relationships between the Australian federal and state governments and opening up public school education to corporate forces (Moyle, 2008).

  • The National Secondary School Computer Fund to achieve a computer to student ratio of 1:1 for students in Years 9 to 12 by the end of 2011.

  • $2.4 billion to support information and communication technology (ICT) in Australian schools in line with the Government’s broader education initiatives.


  • $16 million in the ICT Innovation Fund to fund four projects aimed to increase teacher proficiency in ICT use in teaching and learning to support effective delivery of the new online Australian Curriculum, provide tools for ongoing professional development in ICT and give educational leaders tools and skills to plan for the use of ICT in schools

  • Online Curriculum Support package $41.2 million to support implementation of the Australian Curriculum; having two components:
  1. Australian Curriculum Online ($31.4 million);
  2. Australian Curriculum Connect ($9.8 million)


Educational

  • HSC last reviewed in the mid-1990s at a time when very few, if any, students had even seen or been on the internet.
  • Digital technology could potentially open up an educative space to engage with what Giroux refers to as ‘public pedagogy’ (2004). This would involve allowing students to author their own digital identities, rather than imposing upon them the ‘digital natives’ identity found in some educational discourse that furthers the globalisation agenda.
  • Selwyn (2007) describes the public, private and political interests that are invested in education in which adding digital technology to the classroom represents a ‘highly symbolic’ gesture that demonstrates the strong economic imperative to increase the nation’s competitiveness; a notion re-iterated by Baskin and Williams (2006, p.455). The business community has a vested interest in the education system providing the right training for young people. NSW Chamber of Commerce want young adults finishing their education, to have developed the skills they need to succeed in the workforce (Paul Orton, 2011)
  • The discourse around the digital native - with its implicit suggestion that the education system is failing today’s youth through the technophobia of educators – has been described as an educational moral panic (Bennett, Maton & Kervin, 2008). The digital native motif not only imposes a particular identity upon the current generation of learners; it confounds the social justice goals of education by erasing key differences between young people - access to technology, gender, race, ethnicity, geographic location, and socio-economic status (Buchanan & Chapman, 2010).


References:

Australian Govt DEEWR, 2011 Digital Education Revolution, http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/DigitalEducationRevolution/Pages/default.aspx


Baskin, C., & Williams, M. 2006. ICT integration in schools: Where are we now and what comes next? Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, issue 22, pp. 455-473.

Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. 2008. The 'digital natives' debate: A critical review of the evidence. British journal of Educational Technology, issue 39, pp. 775-787.

Bosco, J. 2006. Tools, Culture and Communications: past - present - future. Global Summit, Sydney, Australia. Viewed 18 Oct 2011 from
<http://www.educationau.edu.au/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/globalsummit/JBosco_GS2006.pdf>

Buchanan, R. 2011. "Paradox, Promise and Public Pedagogy: Implications of the Federal Government’s Digital Education Revolution," Australian Journal of Teacher Education: Vol. 36: Iss. 2, Article 6.



Buchanan, R.A. & Chapman, A.K. 2010. Globalisation and Social Justice: The exploitation of the digital native. Paper presented at the Social Educators Association of AustraliaBiennial Conference, Adelaide, February 2010. Viewed 17 Oct 2011 <http://www.seaa.org.au/media/BuchananChapman%20SEAA%20paper.pdf>

Giroux, H.A. 2004. Cultural Studies and the politics of public pedagogy: Making the political more pedagogical. Parallax, vol. 10 issue 2, pp. 73-89.

Moyle, K. 2005/2006. Transforming Learning/Transforming Schools: Do Models of Deployment of Digital Technologies Support Transformative Teaching and Learning and School Leadership? The International Journal of Learning, vol. 12,pp. 233-240.

Moyle, K. 2008. What does ‘Public School Education’ in Australia mean in the 21st Century?. viewed 17 Oct 2011 <http://www.aare.edu.au/08pap/moy08646.pdf>


Selwyn, N. 2007. Considering the probable futures of education technology. In D. W. Kritt & L. T. Winegar (Eds.), Educationand Technology: Critical perspectives, possible futures (pp. 31-46).
Lexington Books, New York.


Stevenson, A. 2011, 'Employers want HSC geared to workforce' viewed 18 Oct 2011, Sydney Morning Herald <http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/employers-want-hsc-geared-to-workforce-20111018-1lypv.html#ixzz1bDjQY3MZ>


White, G, 2008. 'ICT Trends in Education' . Digital Learning Research. viewed 18 Oct 2011 <http://research.acer.edu.au/digital_learning/2>